Mac share climbs, iPhone dominates US smartphone sales

Apple to gain Mac marketshare as laptop sales climb 30 per cent; meanwhile new research reveals iPhone grabs 27 per cent of US smartphone sales.

By
Jonny Evans
| 22 Nov 07

Apple seems set to gain yet more market share on strength of continued increases in the company's laptop sales, a research company has claimed.

Citing a report in the Chinese-language Commercial Times, DigiTimes reveals research from Taiwan's Topology Research which claims Apple will see volume sales climb 30 per cent year-on-year in 2008.

This is likely to translate into a one percentage point addition to Mac marketshare in 2008, the report indicates. It predicts 116 million laptops (from all vendors) will ship next year, up from 93 million units in 2007.

The report notes that component shortages seem to have impacted 2007's laptop sales, which would have been higher if such parts had been more readily available.

The good news doesn't end there. Research from NPD reveals Apple's iPhone has grabbed over a quarter of the US smartphone market since the device launched in July.

The firm reports that of the 4.2 million smartphones sold in the US between July and September, 1.12 million were iPhones - giving Apple an astonishing 27 per cent share of the market, and almost matching the total number of smartphones sold in the same quarter of 2006.

This report implies that Apple's introduction of the iPhone has invigorated the entire smartphone market in the US.

"The mobile phone market is not only growing, it is growing smarter," said Ross Rubin, NPD's director of industry analysis. "The nearly threefold increase in smartphones shows that this once negligible niche is becoming a more influential force in the consumer market - attracting entrants such as Apple and the Open Handset Alliance."